History’s Critical Role in Our Lives

Zinn makes it very clear that history plays a critical role in our lives and aids to deepen our understanding of the world around us. Further, he calls to us to challenge the things we have learned and were taught, thinking that these historical ‘facts’ are accurate, but as he intellectually writes, he forces us to reevaluate what we know and question its validity and content. Zinn states that ‘In the United States, we grow in a quiz culture, where we’re rated ont he basis of how many of tehse kinds of questions we can answer.” (pg. 68) It is clear that Zinn understands that students are not grasping the importance of the historical concepts that is taught to them. He also recognizes that students in the United States learn a more one-sided type of history that is told in the point of view of the historian. Zinn goes on to say, “I saw that the very people who called for just telling the story as it is, telling the facts as they are and reproducing the past as it was, did history from their point of view” (pg.71) Zinn explains that one an educated, informed person starts to write about these ‘facts’, it becomes just that, purely a fact. But Zinn wants us to recognize that these ‘facts’ are told from a biased point of view, suggesting that these historical ‘facts’ are not retelling the whole truth about an event. For example, Zinn provides us with various historical events in the United States, one in particular is when he describes the Civil War. Zinn says ‘Whenever the Civil War is discussed, it is discussed in terms of battles between the North and the South, it’s discussed in terms of other issues including slavery. But important facts are being left out of teh history of the Civil War period, one of them being that more land was taken from the Indians during the Civil War, than in any other comparable period in American history… Most histories of teh Civil War ignore the fact that while Union soldiers were fighting the Confederacy in the South, there were other parts of the Union army out West taking land form the Indians.” (pg.74). This ties together the fact that Zinn does not believe in an ‘objective’ historian and his way of conveying that education is a ‘political’. In most history textbooks that are used in the US, the point of view is very biased. They detail important events that have transpired in the United States and has shaped the way our country is today, but they leave out essential details about other cultures that were involved in that history and played a role in how our country was built. Zinn also says, ‘I knew immediately that I was not going to be what is called an ‘objective’ historian. I didn’t believe in it; it became clear to me that there was no such thing as objectivity, that there’s an enormous amount of hypocrisy in the history profession and elsewhere about objectivity” (pg.71) The hypocrisy behind US history textbooks is enormous and Zinn agrees. One can argue that we are talking about the United States, not Mexican people, Filipinos, or Japanese, but whether we want to acknowledge these different cultures or not we cannot ignore the fact that they played a critical role in our history as a country and as a people. The goods and food we have, the materialistic things we love to buy, the sense of culture that we have in this country is owed to these different cultures that contributed something along the way. Zinn challenges us to understand this and be more aware of what we are reading and what is being taught to us. Zinn further states, “So while history might not tell you definitively what’s the truth in this particular case, it at least teaches you to be cautious and skeptical” (pg.69) We can’t believe everything we hear and everything we read, we must ask the important questions of Why did these things happen? Where did it stem from? and from this we can truly understand WHY these things happened and WHO was affected and HOW it has affected or not affected the way we are and the way we live today. Zinn’s points about history reminds me so much of Coate’s points and how we need to look at the history behind things before we assume that people act the way they do and are marginalized in the way they are based on their race. NO. We have to look at the history to understand that the issues of race and culture are deeper than the surface and we must recognize that in order to understand ourselves better and to understand different cultures better and from this understanding, create a better sense of community and cultural sensitivity that will help us to get to a better place as a whole. The fact that US history textbooks do not include these cultures, prove that they do not recognize their impact and that the US has a long history of marginalizing these cultures as they have throughout history.

For my social movement research I chose the Anti-GMO movement that is happening now. I guess this appealed to the Biology student side of me because just recently my teacher lectured about how GMOs are bad and how they continue to hide the fact that they are harmful and their long term effects. I was always aware of GMOs, but I once my teacher lectured about it, it made me realize that biotechnology companies are being pretty much banned from doing extensive research on GMOs. We know they are bad and all, but no extensive research has been done for its long term effects and how it can affect our future children as well. This is very alarming and many groups have been formed to tackle this issue. GMOs are genetically engineered foods, and from my biology class, 90% of corn is genetically modified, guaranteeing that if you go to the store and buy corn, it probably has GMOs in it. Except for instance Trader Joes and Whole food where consumers have demanded that they do not sell GMO foods. We are one of the only countries that do not have any regulation on food labeling and people are now taking a stand by advocating for the harmful effects of GMOs. This contributes to my understanding of democracy in our country because it shows me that people are actively trying to tackle the issues that we face today. People have the right to vote yes or no on GMOs but the fact that this issue is not being tackled and not even being taken seriously, means that our democracy is just a one way street, meaning these people are advocating for these issues and speaking out, but are not being met half way by government officials that can actually implement some regulation. With this said, connecting this back to Zinn’s points, he states “In American culture there’s a very, very powerful attempt to pretend that we don’t have classes in our society. And they’re always using language going back to the preamble of the Constitution…” (pg.77) Zinn is telling us that there are classes in our society and they dictate how democracy is being run in this country.

Working at Canal Alliance week to week has given me a better perspective of my community. Yesterday, I worked with a student who I have never worked with. His name was Eric and he is a junior in high school. I was helping him with his geometry homework and he told me from the beginning he was struggling in this class. I asked him if he had notes to help with the homework and he said he did not. Since I was a bit rusty of my geometry skills, I used the book to help him understand concepts through the examples. He was a bit discouraged at first and I also noticed that he had a rather heavy accent. As we went through the examples, things started coming back to him and he began to do his work with ease. This was inspiring to me because I was expecting to help him step by step throughout the whole thing, but he blew me away and started to understand the concepts right away. I also asked Julio, another student I was helping if he liked Canal Alliance and he said yes, he likes it because he gets his work done. Julio has been going to Canal Alliance since he was in the sixth grade and he is currently a junior as well now. Connecting this to the political and economical aspects of their lives, these kids go to Canal Alliance and are developed so that they can go to college and this will impact them economically. In terms of cultural aspect of their lives, the kids that go to Canal are almost all of some kind of Mexican descent and they come to Canal to get the support that they need. Cultural too in the sense that they develop a sense of community and also support from one another since they pretty much know each other and help each other when they need it. More for the political aspect, I did hear Julio say to one of his peers that was doing a presentation on Donald Trump for his class asking him why he was doing a presentation on him because he’s going to deport him (said this jokingly of course), but this made me see that these kids are aware of the politics that are going on and that their parents are probably worried about the immigration reform that may happen if Donald Trump wins the election. These kids are full of promise and it inspires me to do some self-reflecting and also it’s been good to stroll down memory lane a little bit too as I talk to them.